8,000 a day capacity - tickets going like hot cakes

Taking steps to beat the Americans. Back row (left to right) - Michele Thomson, Sally Watson, Florentyna Parker. Front - Carly Booth, Breanne Loucks, Liz Bennett (Cal Carson Golf Agency image, all rights reserved).

Curtis Cup is heading for

an Old Course sell-out

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
The first Curtis Cup match to be played over three days and the first Curtis Cup match to be played at the Home of Golf is heading for a sell-out attendance.

On the grounds of safety, the Ladies Golf Union made the decision some time ago to make it an all-ticket affair with the capacity crowd for each day limited to 8,000.

The tickets are only available online by logging on to the Ladies Golf Union website, http://www.lgu.org/.

Susan Simpson, the LGU director of championships, reported at today's Curtis Cup Media Day at The Duke's Clubhouse that the tickets are going very well indeed and a sell-out is a distinct possibility.
“The crowds will be able to follow the spectators along the fairways, just like they used to do in the old days. We will have to have some very good marshalling to stop people falling into burns and bunkers, but I am sure we will cope,” said Susan.
“We will have grandstand seating for 350 spectators at the Old Course … 100 at the first hole and 250 out at the 11th, where people will literally have a grandstand view of play round the famous Loop.”

Skipper Mary McKenna, today's picture by Cal Carson Golf Agency (all rights reserved), who played in a record nine Curtis Cup matches in her day, admits she still gets a buzz whenever the biennial transatlantic contest against the United States comes round, whether or not she is involved.

"Even if a player goes on to become a successful professional, they never forget the golden memories that playing in a Curtis Cup gives them. And they can come back - as so many are doing later this month - to play in the Past Players Match and attend the Past Players' Dinner," said Mary.

"So it's like becoming member of an elite club. Once you have played in it, your membership of that club lasts forever."

This is the youngest ever British & Irish team since the Curtis Cup was first played at Wentworth in 1932 but skipper Mary has no fears of her youngsters being overawed by the occasion and the crowds.
“The young players are far more experienced that I was at their age, and even older. Here we have Carly, Sally and Florentyna Parker having played in Junior Ryder Cup and Junior Solheim Cup matches,” said Mary.
“So internationals against American opponents are nothing new to them. They don’t get nervous in front of crowds like I would have done at their age. They grow up a lot quicker nowadays as golfers.

"And the support they will get from the crowds will inspire them I am sure.
“Somebody said to me that the Americans will be very hard to beat because they are all highly ranked in US college golf. My answer to that is the match is not being held in the States and we are playing match-play and we are playing it over the Old Course.
“They don’t get much match-play experience on the US college circuit and they certainly don’t play over links like the Old Course as our top amateurs do in most of the LGU major events.
“I hope it is windy, but not too windy, for the match. That will make it even more interesting.”
Carly Booth, Michele Thomson and Sally Watson, three of the four Scots in the GB&I Curtis Cup team, have a date with Prince Andrew later this week.
Alongwith skipper Mary McKenna and the five other members of the eight-strong squad who have been practising over the Old Course, venue for the first three-day match against the United States from May 30 to June 1, the Scots lasses are all looking forward excitedly to meeting The Duke of York at a reception for the GB&I team at Buckingham Palace.
“A few months ago, I thought I had no chance of being selected to play in the Curtis Cup, and here I am going off to meet Prince Andrew. I have to pinch myself in case it’s all a dream,” said 20-year-old Michele from Ellon.
““Even though Jodi Ewart and Krystle Caithness (the fourth Scot in the team) are not here because they are needed by their American colleges, the spirit within the team is building up tremendously. We are quite serious about the golf and the need to get our heads down to practise, but we are also having a lot of fun.”
“I will definitely like to turn professional sooner rather than later,” said Michele. "But that's in the future. There's enough to look forward to over the next few weeks."
Carly Booth and Sally Watson, at 15 and 16, the “babes” of the youngest ever GB&I team, have spent most of the past few months at school in America.
Carly has been a pupil at Red Mountain High School, Mesa, Arizona and Sally is a resident student at the IMG David Leadbetter Golf Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
Is Carly nervous about the biggest occasion of her short golfing life coming up? Not a bit of it.
“I’ve played in the Junior Ryder Cup, so I’m use to international matches against Americans and also playing in front of big crowds. I love it. Can’t wait to tee it up in the Curtis Cup,” said the Aberdonian’s daughter from Comrie, Perthshire.
“Yes, I want to play professionally when I’m old enough. But that can wait. I think I’ll probably go to university in America. I like it a lot over there.”
Much the same applies to Sally Watson who played in the winning European team in last year’s Junior Solheim Cup match in Sweden.
Like Carly, Sally is not short on confidence but certainly not big-headed with it.
“I played well over the Old Course in last year’s Women’s British Open and most of us have also played in the St Rule Trophy there as well, so local knowledge is going to be a big thing for us,” said Sally whose parents now live in Elie, having moved from South Queensferry.
“My older sister Rebecca is already at the University of Tennessee on a golf scholarship and I’ve had inquiries from something like 30 US colleges about whether I would like to enrol with them when I am old enough – that’s in 2009.
“At the moment I fancy Stanford University, where Tiger Woods and Mhairi McKay studied, but the facilities at Tennessee are among the best in America.
“Like Carly, the match against the United States can’t come quickly enough.”